HALFORDS AUTOCENTRES (SHOREHAM) - BRIGHTON, EA

I bought a Yuasa HSB096 car battery from Halfords in April last year. It has failed prematurely. While the battery was on the car (Citroen C5 1.6 HSDI) an RAC man confirmed the battery was dead. (We called him because the car suddenly wouldn't even turn over.) I returned it to Halfords yesterday (Fri 6 Mar) for a warranty replacement. They said they would have to put it on charge using their own charger overnight. I was promised a call this morning (Sat 7 Mar). No call so I phoned up to be told it had a voltage of 12.3V immediately after charging so was not defective. (Expected voltage immediately after charging a serviceable battery shoud be at least 13.7V) I went to the store an hour later and checked the voltage with my own calibrated (BT) Fluke multimeter. 11.2V. The man in Halfords tested it with their Yuasa tester and his reading agreed with my reading but said he could not replace it as the tester did not say it had any dead cells. The battery is from a car that is regularly used. The RAC man confirmed that there was no drain when the ignition was off and the alternator was fully functional. I have always bought Yuasa batteries for my motorcycles as I know they perform well for long periods, even when the bikes are not regularly used. The car to which the battery in question was fitted is, however, regularly used. I got a series of BS reasons about why the failure was the fault of the vehicle, not the battery, from a clearly ill-informed, unqualified and uncooperative member of staff. I am taking this further and have contacted Yuasa directly. The very helpful man I spoke to yesterday had to phone his manager to discuss my problem and so I browsed the e-bikes they had on display while waiting. One model caught my eye. My wife came to the shop with me this morning and we agreed the bike would have suited her perfectly. Are we going to buy it from Halfords ? Well, dear reader, I'll leave you to answer that question yourself !!! :-)